A contact phone number for the Department of Health and Human Services temporarily played an unexpected message seemingly from a pizza chain, because a “rogue” staffer changed it after an influx of calls protesting animal testing.

The kerfuffle began when White Coat Waste Project, a group that advocates against taxpayer-funded animal testing, posted on its social media accounts urging its supporters to call HHS and ask them to “cut funding for cat testing” at a National Institutes of Health-funded lab at the University of Missouri.

The post specifically mentioned HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by name and listed two phone numbers for supporters to call.

 

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In another post, WCWP accused NIH of “approv[ing] $126 MILLION of taxpayer dollars for new beagle experiments since RFK Jr. took office,” and described what happened after their supporters began flooding HHS’ phone lines with angry calls:

But when taxpayers caught on to their deception and flooded HHS phone lines, officials responded in the most childish manner possible.

They changed their voicemail recording to say: “Thank you for calling Domino’s Pizza.”

This is how HHS officials are responding to their betrayal of MAHA and their complete failure to shut down Fauci’s legacy of puppy abuse.

To be absolutely clear:

We will never stop exposing this taxpayer-funded animal abuse, and we will never back down from our fight to shut it all down.

WCWP senior vice president Justin Goodman told Politico Pulse that when his organization first posted the phone number, “a human was answering,” then the number went straight to voicemail on Friday, and by this Tuesday, the number played the Domino’s Pizza message.

“Torturing puppies with our tax dollars isn’t funny, but people at HHS apparently think it is,” Goodman denounced the prank at a hearing Wednesday for the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Reached for comment by Politico, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon provided a statement that the Domino’s Pizza voicemail was “an unauthorized action by a rogue employee and not representative of HHS,” and added that the phone number was now back to normal.

WCWP members also played the voicemail message for Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who replied that it was “not okay” and “actually makes my stomach turn.”

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The post ‘Rogue’ HHS Staffer Changed Agency Voicemail to ‘Thanks for Calling Domino’s Pizza!’ After Influx of Protest Calls first appeared on Mediaite.

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